Another powerful speech from a Ukrainian woman to the world community
Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk after defeating the “neutral” athlete Anastasia Potapova in the 1/4 finals of the tournament WTA 1000 in American Indian Wells spoke out powerfully in support of the Ukrainian people.
“Of course, you never know what will happen tomorrow. I think all people feel this, but we [украинцы] we feel it a little more, because our lives seem to be out of our hands. We can’t control the situation.”
“Honestly, I can’t speak for people who live in Ukraine, because I don’t live there. I just came to visit a couple of times. And I feel like people are already just… well, you know, it’s very tiring and difficult to live in such conditions for years. It just wears everyone down.”
“I don’t think the world understands how quickly things can change. You know, you think the score is 6:0, 3:0, but in reality it’s much closer, you know. I think I feel like I’m doing everything I can to… at least wherever I can influence something. But, you know, you still have the feeling that this is not enough, that I should do more, that there is something else I can do, and so on, and you try to talk to people. But it is very difficult to understand what we are going through, how much has been violated, how many memorandums and everything that was promised to us.”
“You know, it’s just painful to experience. Obviously, this is a very good lesson for the whole country – to rely on yourself and be very nice to everyone, but think about yourself first. I really hope that people will just… you know, just take it… it’s a very serious topic to talk about, but a lot of things happen for a reason. I just hope we can learn as many lessons as possible so this never happens again. I hope we can get more help from different parts of the world. That would be great too.”
For the first time in her career, Kostyuk reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 series tournament. At this stage, she will fight with the first racket of the world, Iga Szwiatek from Poland.
Early in the morning of February 24, 2022, Russia fired rockets and aerial bombardment of most Ukrainian cities, and then launched a full-scale military invasion. The war against Russia has continued for the 751st day.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
